I have emerged from the abyss otherwise known as the Guest Room..Ai yi-yi! Im sure that many of you are familiar with The Guest Room.."Where should we put this stuff?" "Oh, just throw it in The Guest Room for now." So there it goes and there it stays until oh-oh, a real guest is coming ! So you shove it all in the closet and warn the guest not to open the closet doors under any circumstances. I spent the better part of the day up there, and have effectively sorted and purged . Filled the trash tote and have two more 32 gal trash bags full and waiting in the wings. Put together a huge pile of salvation army items and lugged them down to the garage. Also lugged down 3 pieces of defunct stereo equipment to take to the electronics recycling next weekend. Discovered that one of the twin beds is sporting two mattresses instead of a mattress and box springs-it teeters at an odd angle as a result.One can only speculate how that came about ! Found a box of 45s. Cleaned out the cedar "Hopeless" chest, which had only two items of any value in it. Its the smallest room in the house , and yet an absolute mountain of stuff kept emerging. ! So it was a productive day..and beautiful weather as I gazed longingly out the window. I did take a break for some watering and deadheading. Everything is just bone dry. How great all the pics were for the birthday trio ! Michelle, I am going to get butternut squash next weekend at the farmers market and make a recipe I found for squash enchiladas. If it turns out Ill share Marian , you and Marie asked about the photo, it was a pic from Yosemite , taken by DS. Marie, maybe you will have some pics of the Bouvier couple ? Deanne- lol, youd probably need an extra truck for all your containers ! My DD is coming down for Thanksgiving and I told her to bring an empty car, because I am sending as many of the containers back up for her to babysit as I can fit in her vehicle. Mary, I have not read "The Road", but had in fact made plans to read all three of his border trilogy this winter. I am so behind on my reading list ! I have promised myself that I will get back to my book-a-week pace this winter. Thank you so much for posting the David Russell link- I have always loved classical guitar and dont have nearly enough cds in my collection. I will definitely order a couple of Davids ! Babs, glad to see a post from you no matter how brief ! Hope all is well. Mariann, isnt it nice to encounter the kindness of others ? I hope your DD is helped by the device that was sent to you ! I imagine that the protracted recovery period has affected your DDs attitude which in turn makes healing more difficult. I wish her the best ! Okay, time to take an evening stroll in the garden with a glass of cheap-o chardonnay. Greetings to all ! Kathy in Napa

OA, I love your fall/football decorations. I live in Florida so we really don't have a fall. By the time it starts to cool down it is January then before you know it we are sleeveless again by March or April. So I rarely decorate except for pumpkins. Yours looks great!! Karen, my children and grandchildren love Alabama. Their pool rooms are decorated in football things, they wear their A shirts when there is a game, the flag goes up, etc, etc, etc. Real fanatics - however, my daughter's husband graduated from Auburn so they have a beautiful picture of Alabama on one side and Auburn on the other with the words - A House Divided. I just retreat to my painting room so I don't have to watch any of it. Or I can play with my dishes which always makes me feel good.

Flowers, I've had Russian sage in back in crucial spots, but I usually combine it with boxwood and lavender, along with butterfly bush and four o'clocks, slightly toxic like morning glories, to deer. None of this is much deterrence, though I think deer hate boxwood the most of all. It smells like cat pee. The deer here (mule deer) seem to be only interested in roses and occasionally tomatoes. They go for the blooms, buds, and growing tips of the rose. For some reason, they went beyond this typical damage when it came to Eglantyne, and they reduced her size a bit, and left a half dozen leaves on the poor rose. Any other flowering plant or shrub they don't seem to care about with two exceptions: a certain dianthus (Raspberry Surprise) that they wouldn't leave alone, and pumpkins, which they tried to bite. Mainly they just marked up the pumpkins with their teeth. I suppose if I had a lot of hosta and tulips they would destroy those. Thanks for your nice comments on Eglantyne. I'm not doing right by her, leaving her out in back to the deer. Noseo, your Russian sage is quite gorgeous. And you have the perfect home style for it and lavender. I just don't have any room anymore for R sage or lavender, so they end up down the slope. This helps with soil erosion, plus the deer, but it's a rip roaring mess out there on the slope. When I see what you have done with your sage and lavender, I am so jealous. I do have some roses blooming, but nothing like a flush, except for Julia Child, perhaps. It warmed up several days ago, and voila new buds and a few new roses. This will all end on Nov 6--the last day for photosynthesis here. After that, the sun will not be shining long or strong enough to promote new growth. Flowers is even farther north than I am, so her last day is a little earlier. You are south of us, so you have more good days left. Now I am jealous of you! Thanks, Sheila and Jim. Sheila, I'll bet you still have some wonderful R sage and lavender growing. Diane

Hi Lavender! It’s been a while since I’ve seen anything from you. Merry Christmas, and great to hear from you. Diane, I did order Boscobel from them last year. It’s sure worth requesting a catalogue, if you don’t get one. Mine just arrived yesterday, so maybe some are still on their way? It’s 172 pages without the index, and loaded with gorgeous pictures. I just wish I could get my hands on the DA florist roses, as plants. I know they aren’t meant for home gardeners, but I’d sure like to give it a try. They are absolutely incredible. I’ll see if I can get a picture of a page without disturbing my little lap friend:) ‘Charity’ is so unique with her little green pip. Either this one or the next are my favorite. This one, ‘Edith’ might be my favorite. Those antique gold centers are so beautiful! Here’s one more picture. I love the ruffles in ‘Beatrice’. I don’t know why I’m drooling over the couple pages of roses that we CAN’T order for the garden. They’re just irresistible to me. I think ‘Edith’ could be one of the DA roses my niece, Jenna, used in her wedding last year. It sure looks like it. Jenna used lots of warm colors, while Sarena,(the recent pictures I posted) used more subtle colors. They both used lots of gorgeous DA roses, but very different from each other. I hope everyone gets their DA catalog soon. I think it’s the best edition they’ve ever sent me, but I haven’t been getting them for all that many years. I’m impressed by nice selection of non-DA roses, as well. This “Index By Color”, at the end of the catalog is a nice feature, although it doesn’t include all the DA roses they offer. Evelyn and Bishops Castle aren’t in this index. It’s a great way to see color graduation, and I appreciate that they mixed in non-DA roses. It would be a great tool for designing a bed. Too bad it’s too late any new designs around here. I mostly just winged it, and they are where they are...... Lisa